


The Things I Gave Away (They're Not Coming Back to Me)

by Quetzalcoatl_is_my_Momma



Series: RedSuperDragon Collection of 2020 [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Inexplicable Urge to write Angst at 4:30 AM, M/M, Mentions of sexual ventures, Mourning, Natsu Dragneel Dies, possible denial of feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:40:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23510065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quetzalcoatl_is_my_Momma/pseuds/Quetzalcoatl_is_my_Momma
Summary: There's a place we used to go,Today I went alone...If there's a message in this song,Well I don't know~...
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Tim Drake
Series: RedSuperDragon Collection of 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691605
Kudos: 1





	The Things I Gave Away (They're Not Coming Back to Me)

Fire was all around him, and he didn’t remember right off the bat where he was. his surroundings were burning up, the heat rising. Batman was tied to a pole nearby, Robin was knocked out, Red Hood and Nightwing were in the same condition- only he was awake.

“Red! Red answer me!”

A head of wild salmon hair tipped with black suddenly flew in through the top windows. The figure thrust out a hand and the fire parted like Moses did the Red Sea, allowing him to run through. Amber eyes aglow with power to tame the violent element stared at the cowl’s eye lens over Red Robin’s head before he crashed to his knees and threw his arms around his neck. “Thank Mavis I made it in time…” Red Robin, originally in shock, jerked and shoved the fool away with his shoulder. “You idiot! Why did you come here?!” a determined face rapidly becoming stained with soot and ash glared into covered eyes. “I wasn’t going to stand by and watch you all die. I can stop this, and I will!” Red Robin’s eyes widened under his cowl, knowing the consequences this far into the game. If his friend ~~his lover~~ did this there was an extremely hair-thin chance, not even that, that the Pyromancer would be walking out of here alive, much less unscathed.

“No… no you can’t-!” the young man blinked before his eyes gained a sad light in them. “For what it’s worth, Red… I knew. No one can drink that much coffee and still be functional like you can, or not have it saturating your scent like you were born in it.” Eyes began to fill with tears as the vigilante realized that yes this was happening and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

Etherious ‘Natsu’ Dragneel stood and stepped back just as the other BatClan members were waking up. “the time I spent with you was the best I had in years,” the shaky voice pulled at Batman’s attention and his eyes widened upon recognition. The rumored ‘Salamander’, a Fire-wielding metahuman who stalked the streets of Gotham when the Dark Knight himself didn’t, the one Batman and his clan were hell-bent on catching and putting away on suspicion of situations of arson... like this one.

Instead, a culprit by the name of Ignia- a fellow magic user that had a more potent form of flame to Salamander's was at fault, and was seeking to kill Salamander for having him shoved aside by their father, luring him here as he found out through the insane arsonist's monolouging. Laying eyes on the pyromancer now, Batman was shocked and an age-old wound that never fully healed ached. memories of a young boy killed before his time, under his watch. Salamander wasn't his, but the age and determination to save them was all too familiar...

And he wasn’t any older than Red Robin.

“Thank you for believing in me, for giving me a chance… for giving my spark back to me again… _thank you_ , Timothy.”

_Oh, hell no. he wasn’t going to leave him like this._

“Natsu, stop! Don’t-!”

The volatile fire not his own began to spin around the young Pyromancer as he reached out with his abilities and grabbed them with his own. Horrid second-degree burns, rapidly shifting into _third-degree_ , started to crawl up his fingers and Natsu grit his teeth to keep from screaming at the strain. Seconds passed and he felt copper on his tongue as his nose began to bleed. He had never attempted to do something like this before as it was so far pout of his threshold of abilities to do, but by golly if it got Tim and his family _out_ of this blazing _hell-bath_ then so be it.

He’d gladly reduce himself to ashes if that were the price to be paid.

Natsu’s head throbbed and his vision cut out in his left eye, but he pulled at all the heat and fire and pressure before it was spinning around him in a vortex that he shot into the sky where it exploded in a corona of ash and embers.

He didn’t notice he’d fallen until shaking fingers were shoved at his neck- he was still alive, but just barely. He didn’t have long left, the power needed wasn’t just willpower alone… a move like that required _The_ spark. he was then rolled over and held to a cool chest of Kevlar and was wrapped partially in a warm heavy blanket-thing- Tim's _cape-_ and a drizzle of rain cooling the pyromancer's scorching skin.

“You… absolute _idiot!_ ” Red half-yelled, half-screamed at his best friend, the one he _wanted_ to call his boyfriend but was in denial of their relationship, too frightened of what it could become, as he cradled his steaming body in a delicate hold. His family stood around him, keeping watch as Red Robin tried his best to treat Salamander- no, _Natsu_. Yet, Tim knew that nothing he could do would save this crazy fire-using wreaking ball, and it _killed_ him to realize that.

A dull amber eye faded to the familiar olive green that Tim knew and loved. Memories of sharing coffee, drinking warm thermoses full of the stuff on the fire escape, stargazing when the cloud cover cleared for those rare moments in Gotham.

Being forced to sleep next to a warm body, smiles, grins, pearly teeth, tasting cinnamon on searing lips and nights filled with sweaty skin rubbing against each other and hot tongues lapping at pulse points both in the mask and out.

Grinding hips and chapped lips in the winter while cries and slaps of flesh filled the air in summer. Salty tears of stress and anger during spring and groans of ecstasy during fall, nearly two years worth of sneaking around to see each other, falling for each other, _loving_ each other, flashing before covered blue eyes and one working green one.

The brief guilt at thinking he was forcing Natsu to cheat when he saw him as either Red Robin or Tim Drake-Wayne, feeling like he didn’t deserve that smile the salmonette wore in either side of his life.

 _“Hey…”_ the weary voice pulled the Bat Bird from his torrent of memories to look down at the glittering green eye. A tear tracked down from under the cowl.

_“Don’t cry… I like you more… when you… smile. Especially when you… sleep well at night…”_

A shaky hand raised up to wipe away the tear tracks coming from under the cowl, and a small charred smile shook into existence. A gloved hand gripped the burnt appendage for all he was worth, and even then he was gentle about it, not wanting to cause any unnecessary pain.

_“I didn’t get to say it before… but I love you, Red… sorry it took this to get me to tell you…”_

Red Robin didn’t pay any attention to Robin placing an awkward hand on his shoulder in an attempt at comforting his brother, or of Red Hood’s clenching hands on his guns and the growl of promised vengeance against the ‘Crazy Arsonist’ responsible for the newest casualty of the generations long feud they never knew about (and for his brother’s broken heart). He didn’t notice Nightwing leaning against his side and wrapping an arm around his shoulder to give comfort, nor Batman’s shadow falling over them before he covered the now achingly still Natsu with his cape.

_Because Natsu was never still…_

_He was always jumping around, alive with fire and life._

_When did he stop moving…?_

_When did his pulse stop fluttering?_

_…_

_When did Natsu just…_ stop _?_

** =›◊‹= **

Days later, as the Salamander was set up in a small memorial burial within Wayne Manor’s grounds- at a spot where he always turned up when Timothy Drake-Wayne wanted to talk to someone in the forest area- the second-youngest Wayne ran a shaking hand over the cooled obsidian stone, carved with the family’s savior and his first and lost love, before whispering…

_“I love you too. Sorry it took me this long to say it…”_

**Author's Note:**

> the sudden and inexplicable urge to write angst at 4:30 AM hit me. Natsu and Tim were in a more of a 'Friends with Benefits' relationship for 2 years in this one-shot, and Natsu had powers of pyromancy but to be clear here, that's not the same as Dragon Slayer Magic. a pyromancer is more like what a Firebender is from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Natsu, to be more specific, can mentally control fire, but to an extent. let's pretend he has limits that if he breeches them will result in death, okay? Pyromancers aren't immune to fire, either. resistant? yeah! immune, hell no. Look at Zuko or Shoto Todoroki.
> 
> this is what happens when Natsu is willing to die to protect the one he loves.
> 
> The song is Tightrope by Ron Pope


End file.
